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<blockquote data-quote="Tom Underwood" data-source="post: 325799" data-attributes="member: 5097"><p>I'm not filthy rich, but I have 1000+ Virginia acres and I am not constrained by near term profits or capital to purchase seed stock. If I could think of a good reason to spend $100k+ on an animal, I would. I have spent more than $200k in aggregate on registered cattle purchases in the last five years.</p><p></p><p>That said, I've been breeding Herefords for 7 years, and I still have no hired hands, pull the calves, collect the data, make the hay, put out the hay, and I'm in better shape now than I was when I began other than some of the nagging injuries I've received along the way.</p><p></p><p>It's took me 6+ years to get a plan, and the plan doesn't involve showing in Denver, chasing performance, or continuing a line (although I may incidentally continue some lines). There will be financial pain since I am now evolving from high EPD cattle to cattle with scattered EPD's. </p><p></p><p>I breed based solely upon beef quality, hardiness (including conformation) and the ability to pass on beef quality (prepotency). Without financial constraint and without peer pressure, I am able to ignore packers, feeders, and peer pressure from current breed practices if I wish to.</p><p></p><p>I am able to study the writing of the associations, the university and government scientists, the Genestar papers, Jim Lents, Kit Pharo, Hazelton, Lush and many others. Fortunately, with a few years of having done the cattle work myself and with graduate degrees from universities, I am able to comprehend some of the knowledge available to cattle breeders in books. I augment the knowledge I acquire with the experience I gain.</p><p></p><p>Without near term money being the object, I can look at the cattle. I can notice their slight faults and cull directly to the stockyard without a care. I can learn more, change a direction, and cull aggressively. I can attempt to build lines through heavy inbreeding, and I can buy others' lines that I think may help. I can question any deeply held premise in cattle breeding. I can afford to wonder about correlations and causations between beef quality, beef management, performance and efficiency and experiment with my theories. Then, I can taste my progress or lack of progress every so often and think some more. Finally, in the back of my mind, I am driven by the goal that I can probably make even more money if I find the formula for cattle that produces great tasting, consistent, healthy beef in a cost effective fashion.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Tom Underwood, post: 325799, member: 5097"] I'm not filthy rich, but I have 1000+ Virginia acres and I am not constrained by near term profits or capital to purchase seed stock. If I could think of a good reason to spend $100k+ on an animal, I would. I have spent more than $200k in aggregate on registered cattle purchases in the last five years. That said, I've been breeding Herefords for 7 years, and I still have no hired hands, pull the calves, collect the data, make the hay, put out the hay, and I'm in better shape now than I was when I began other than some of the nagging injuries I've received along the way. It's took me 6+ years to get a plan, and the plan doesn't involve showing in Denver, chasing performance, or continuing a line (although I may incidentally continue some lines). There will be financial pain since I am now evolving from high EPD cattle to cattle with scattered EPD's. I breed based solely upon beef quality, hardiness (including conformation) and the ability to pass on beef quality (prepotency). Without financial constraint and without peer pressure, I am able to ignore packers, feeders, and peer pressure from current breed practices if I wish to. I am able to study the writing of the associations, the university and government scientists, the Genestar papers, Jim Lents, Kit Pharo, Hazelton, Lush and many others. Fortunately, with a few years of having done the cattle work myself and with graduate degrees from universities, I am able to comprehend some of the knowledge available to cattle breeders in books. I augment the knowledge I acquire with the experience I gain. Without near term money being the object, I can look at the cattle. I can notice their slight faults and cull directly to the stockyard without a care. I can learn more, change a direction, and cull aggressively. I can attempt to build lines through heavy inbreeding, and I can buy others' lines that I think may help. I can question any deeply held premise in cattle breeding. I can afford to wonder about correlations and causations between beef quality, beef management, performance and efficiency and experiment with my theories. Then, I can taste my progress or lack of progress every so often and think some more. Finally, in the back of my mind, I am driven by the goal that I can probably make even more money if I find the formula for cattle that produces great tasting, consistent, healthy beef in a cost effective fashion. [/QUOTE]
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